Friday, September 12, 2008

Hunting The Storsjöodjuret

Filmmakers claim to have captured footage of Sweden's mythical Storsjoodjuret or Great Lake sea monster, the Scandinavian country's equivalent to the legendary beast said to lurk in Scotland's Loch Ness.

By Bruno WaterfieldLast Updated: 4:06PM BST 28 Aug 2008

Svergies Television, which set up cameras on Sweden's Storsjon or Great Lake, has released images of a blurry, long and narrow silhouette moving in the depths said to be the famous Swedish sea monster.

"It clearly shows that it's warm and is made up of cells, otherwise our cameras wouldn't indicate red, so it can be a sea snake or some other kind of sea animal," said a member of the film crew.

Efforts to find the monster are being stepped up amid international TV interest and by summer 2009, 30 cameras will be monitoring the lake's waters and islets.

Hunts for the Storsjoodjuret are controversial after Swedish authorities tried and failed to protect the creature as an endangered animal three years ago.

The monster was first mentioned in print in 1635 and 500 people have reported 200 sightings since then.

Spotters have variously described the creature as a three-humped serpent, anywhere between 50 to nine feet long, with a dog's head and fins on its neck, with black, grey, red or yellow colouring, making a wailing, or rattling, noise.

Hunts for the Great Lake sea monster have regularly taken place since 1894 when a Swedish sea captain created a stock company with the purpose of catching the legenday beast.